This Sunday we hear Luke’s account of Jesus’ famous sermon on the beatitudes ,“The Sermon on the Mount” in Matthew. But in Luke it takes place on a great stretch of level ground. We’ve heard it over and over since we were children and are hardly shocked by Jesus’ description of the reign of God. Undoubtedly some of those who gathered on that great stretch of land to listen to Jesus were shocked by the picture he painted of the Reign of God…it made no sense and ran contrary to the sociopolitical reality of their lives. What was he thinking, the meek will inherit the land? We all know that it is the powerful who control the land. And the “peace-makers”?…well they usually get run over by the armies! And what was he saying about the “poor”, theirs is the Kingdom of God? Wait a minute…I though the Kingdom belonged to the righteous and those who followed the letter of the law.

Well the truth is that Jesus had a different take on the whole matter. The beatitudes name the ways in which peoples’ lives and well-being are threatened: grinding poverty, grief, landlessness, hunger, war and persecution. Jesus does not advise that those so afflicted simply wait for a reversal of fortune in the hereafter, though the final verse does speak of great reward in heaven. Jesus calls for attitudes and actions that will more fully bring about the reign of God. The poor are the humble whose wealth is found in their relationship with God and not in gold. The meek are not to be “shrinking violets” who accept injustice, but rather, those who know their proper place as children of God, and who stand up to ensure that all people are treated with dignity and as full heirs to God’s Reign.

The beatitudes are really “Be - Attitudes”…they call us to a way of holiness through reaching out to all who suffer in this world, and promise us that to the extent that we reach out to and work on behalf of the suffering we will become more fully the “blessed of God” and in the process we help to build up the Reign of God! One of the major differences in the sermon in the Gospel of Matthew and Luke’s are the “woe unto you” verses. These verses serve as warnings so that people will take stock of their lives and reflect on how they are living and building up the Reign of God. As we take time this week to reflect on this Gospel let us focus on the beatitudes and ask ourselves: in what concrete ways will I live out the “Be – Attitudes” today?